The Cheerleader, Exposed
by sparrowlove
Summary: An accident while cheerleading cause Claire's powers to be revealed to the world. Based on the prompt at heroesfest on Livejournal... A celebrity Hero what do you do when your power emerges in the spotlight?


The trouble started when they moved. Again. They got to keep their name though, at least they had that. No reason to hide that they were Bennets if Noah Bennet once again worked for the very people they were hiding from to begin with.

Lyle, who had always been very adaptable, reacted to this relocation as he had the last, rather well and rather silently. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet were worried about the movie, of course, but no more worried than they had been about any other recent happenings. It was only Claire who had trouble adjusting in the new town. More accurately, she had trouble _not_ adjusting.

The lure of a normal life was very strong. The lure of friends and dates and classes. And pom poms. She asked her father if she could try out for cheerleading.

(_If he says no, I won't fight. I won't try out if he says no. I don't even know why I'm asking. I shouldn't be doing this. But I won't if he says know. If only he says no._)

But he didn't say no. "I guess so Claire-bear," was what he did say. "As long as you're very careful." Now that he was on the side of the Company again, Claire was at least safe from her biggest threat. Now Noah could worry about her being happy. And since her boyfriend was hundreds of miles away (in fact, Noah Bennet wasn't even sure that Claire and West were still dating; he had heard them arguing loudly on the phone the night before), he thought that cheerleading might be just the thing to make her smile. So he said yes, and she tried out. Of course she made it.

The first two games went _perfectly. _ Claire learned the routines well; she was a quick study. And fearless. A few of her teammates nicknamed Claire "Braveheart" for the way she threw herself into the complicated gymnastics, not worrying about scraping up her knees of bloodying her elbows.

Earlier, I wrote that the trouble started when the Bennets moved, but that was inaccurate. The trouble really began when Lesley Anderson caught a terrible cold from Jamie Leighton one day in math class. While Lesley leaned towards Jamie's desk to copy his answers during a test, Jamie tried and failed to hold in his sneeze. "Sorry," he sniffled, as Lesley wiped snot off her arm.

"No talking during the test," the teacher snapped, and Lesley leaned back over her own desk and quickly forgot about the sneeze. Until the next morning. When Lesley Anderson woke the day of the next football game, she knew that she had been infected by Jamie's cold. But she wouldn't let her squad down (and anyway, she knew there was a high likelihood that this would be her last game; since she hadn't managed to get test answers in addition to the virus from Jamie, she was sure that she had failed the test and dropped her GPA below the sports eligibility cutoff), so she went to cheer anyway.

Lesley Anderson managed to control her oncoming illness until the middle of the halftime cheer. During a particularly difficult part of the routine, when three of the squad members went flying through the air, thrown up by their teammates, Lesley Anderson, a spotter, began to cough and couldn't stop for nearly a minute. Subsequently, she wasn't able to catch one of the falling cheerleaders, the new girl, Claire Bennet.

Claire hit the ground with a _crunch_ and a _thud_. There was a gasp from the audience. Claire's arm was rotated in its socket, and the wrist was bent at an unnatural angle. Panicked, Claire tried to fix the problem. Lesley Anderson, still coughing, was most likely the only one in the stadium who didn't see Claire's arm unbreak itself when she twisted it back into place. Even the boy who had been videotaping the football game for the school's website saw it, through his camera lens.

By the next day, the clip was on the internet, to be seen by many more than just the occupants of the high school football stadium. In its first day, the video received thousands of hits. The number exponentially increased the next day as the video made news on blogs as well as actual news sources.

Claire hid inside her house. Noah called Bob Bishop to see if there was anything they could do, but there was no way to get the video of the indestructible cheerleader out of the minds and off the computers of people all over the country, maybe even the world. Finally, eight days after the game, after eight days of hiding, eight days of worry, Claire received a phone call from New York City.

"What are they going to do to you?" Nathan asked gruffly. "You're invincible." There was scuffling sounds from the other end of the line, and the phone changed hands.

"What he means is that you shouldn't worry." Peter's voice was soft and immediately made Claire feel a little better. "Yeah, people might look at you weird for a while, but come on, it's high school. They'll only talk about you until some kid gets busted with cocaine or some girl gets knocked up."

"And they can hardly even make fun of you," Nathan said. "I mean," He laughed, "can you even think of a rude name that means 'girl who can't get hurt?'"

"No," Claire said. "But I'm not a teenage boy."

"Still. Anyway, as far as internet videos go, it could still be worse, right?" At least you've got your clothes on."

"Yeah," Claire smiled. "If only I had my arm on."

"That's the spirit," Nathan replied.

"When's your next game?" Peter asked.

"Today," Claire admitted. "It started a few minutes ago."

"Then you better hurry."

"Will you come visit sometime?" Claire asked.

"I could come visit now," Peter said. "Teleport, yes?"

"Would you?"

"Only if you promise that I can see you cheering."

Claire thought about it. "I better get going then." Claire smiled as she changed into her uniform. She wondered if West had seen the video; maybe she'd call him after the game. Or maybe not. She would rather talk to Peter anyway. Claire dashed out the door, pom poms in hand, ready to show the world what she could do.


End file.
